Oh boy!

Good Friday Evening!

<—— See this old dude? He should have a starring role in the movie, Plan B from Outer Space, and a speech bubble saying, “Take me to your uterus!

Can you believe that Pennsylvania and Alabama are getting in on the State Sanctioned Rape-a-pa-loosa? Makes me think of that line from the song Springtime for Hitler….I can just see Santorum singing it: “Don’t be stupid, be a smarty…come and join the PLUBers party.”

That headline is just disgusting. I will only answer it with a quote from Madeleine Allbright:

“There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”
― Madeleine Albright

I want to bring some other links to your attention. Yes, some of these have been posted in the comments but it deserves front page mention. I also want to update you on some items we have discussed on Sky Dancing the past week.

Rep. Joseph Lyons (D-Chicago), who is sponsoring the ultrasound bill, called his legislation “a pro-choice bill,” while Jakobsson countered that “I think what you are getting at is trying to discourage the woman from trying to protect her life,” according to the News-Gazette.

Mell questioned the bills’ peculiar assignment to the state’s agriculture committee despite the fact they have nothing to do with either farming or the environment.

Yesterday the Texas Department of Health and Human Services announced that it will begin enforcing a law in mid-March prohibiting doctors and clinics affiliated with organizations that provide abortion services from receiving state Medicaid funding. Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner Tom Suehs signed the rule yesterday, which was passed by the Republican Controlled state Congress last year.

The rule, which would deny state funding even to institutions that do not directly provide abortions, could shut down the Wome’s Health Program and deny health services to approximately 130,000 impoverished women.

Texas’ Women’s Health Program receives about $40 million per year from the federal government. Its aim is to provide services to women who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford care. Texas, which bears the dubious distinction of leading the nation in both the number and rate of uninsured, could certainly use the funds. But now, it seems that concern for the fate of imaginary fetuses again has trumped real needs of women.

Last year, lawmakers in the state of Texas attempted to draw up a set of guidelines that would bar any taxpayer money from going to any organization that provides abortions, even if the money wasn’t used for the procedure. The measure was clearly designed to cut off Planned Parenthood at the knees, because Planned Parenthood is to 2012 as Communists were to 1954.

Sort of gives Pink a whole new meaning…

The federal government said rule was in violation of the Social Security Act, and unless the Lone Star State eliminated the rule, they’d be forced to cut off funding to the Women’s Health Program.

It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. Republicans in Texas love to do nutty things like threaten to secede from the union and teach creationism in public school, and they’re making this out like it’s another example of federal overreach. Democrats aren’t buying it, saying it’s a nakedly political move to get anti-abortion people riled up, and that the federal government has a right to withdraw funding from the program that they fund relative to state taxpayers at a ratio of $9 to $1.

The thousands and thousands of poor women who will now be cut off from health care that they need could not be reached for comment.

And have you seen? Here is one GOP wacko who is actually telling the press, these anti-birth control measures have crossed the line.

Women’s health care has dominated political discussions as GOP-controlled state legislatures consider legislation to extremely curtail women’s access to abortions and right-wing leaders claim the Obama administration is infringing on religious liberty for requiring employer insurance plans to cover contraception at no charge (even though accommodations exempt churches and religiously affiliated institutions).

But it seems that some Republicans think their party has gone too far. Yesterday, Virginia legislators backed away from a “personhood” measure and the state’s conservative governor removed his support for an extreme ultrasound bill. Even Pat Buchanan, a leader on social issues within the party and a former GOP presidential candidate, this morning warned that Republicans like Rick Santorum are overreaching in their opposition to contraception.

On C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, Buchanan described the debate over contraception as “beyond the political realm”

Jeb! is very concerned that the four stooges’ “Who Can Be The Craziest?” contest is turning off non-wingnut America.

“I used to be a conservative and I watch these debates and I’m wondering, I don’t think I’ve changed, but it’s a little troubling sometimes when people are appealing to people’s fears and emotion rather than trying to get them to look over the horizon for a broader perspective and that’s kind of where we are,” said the former Florida Governor. “I think it changes when we get to the general election. I hope.”

Ha…ha…cough…cough, I choked on some spit there. Guess the thought of Jeb riding a white horse through the Tampa Convention Center just made my mouth water.

Paul Krugman argued today that Mitt Romney “is running a campaign of almost pathological dishonesty.” That need not be considered hyperbole.

Indeed, Greg Sargent added this morning that Romney’s “falsehoods and all around dissembling” may be designed to “simply wear reporters and commentators down by trafficking in them so heavily that they throw up their hands and give up on trying to track or debunk them.”

But I remain undeterred. A couple of months ago, I launched a Friday afternoon feature, highlighting the most offensive Mitt Romney falsehoods of the week. It moved to Maddow Blog a few weeks ago, so let’s keep this going with another installment.

Anne Frank, the famous diarist and Holocaust victim, was put to death on account of her Jewish faith. But earlier this month, she was nonetheless secretly co-opted into the Mormon Church.

So claim researchers investigating the US-based Church’s practice of posthumously baptising dead people – sometimes without the knowledge and almost always against the will of surviving friends and family members.

Ms Frank was “christened” at a Mormon temple in the Dominican Republic, in apparent violation of a pact between the Church and Jewish leaders. A local child, acting as her spiritual proxy, is believed to have been dunked in a font during the ceremony.

Computer records of the event register Ms Frank under her full name, Annelies Marie Frank, and say that she lived from 1929 to 1945. The baptism was “completed” at a temple in Santo Domingo on 18 February.

The Mormon Cult, I mean Church, issued a statement:

“It is distressing when an individual wilfully violates the Church’s policy,” the statement continued, “and something that should be understood to be an offering based on love and respect becomes a source of contention.”
It’s the second time in days that the Church has issued a similar mea culpa. Last week, it emerged that the parents of Simon Wiesenthal, a Nazi death camp survivor and Jewish rights advocate, had been recently baptised in Utah and Arizona.

“…offering based on love and respect?” What the hell is that about?

Over the years, they’ve duly held baptism ceremonies for around 650,000 Holocaust victims, along with countless late celebrities, including John Lennon, and Albert Einstein. Thanks to her prominence, Ms Frank is believed to have been baptised at least nine times.

[…]

…other faiths view it as deeply offensive. So amid growing public disquiet, the Mormon Church announced in 2010 that its members would no longer be trying to recruit dead Holocaust victims.

Their apparent failure to keep that promise isn’t just sparking stern criticism. It has also proven a boon to late-night comics. Stephen Colbert, the TV satirist, on Thursday announced that he intends to convert all dead Mormons to Judaism, by way of a ceremony involving a frankfurter and a cigar-cutter.

That is something Romney needs to address. If he can talk shit about religious freedom, then how can he support a “church” that does this kind of crap?

Well, what do you all think? Can John King be resolute enough to ask Mittens a tough “gotcha” question next time around? My guess is he won’t.

That is all folks…I’m off to save the planet from evil satanic aliens in navy suits and ugly ties! See ya later!

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You can find his work at his website by clicking on his logo below. He is also a calligraphy artist that uses important vajrayana syllables. We encourage you to visit his on line studio.